Network administrators are people who design, construct, and configure computer networks. Computer networks are efficient when the computer network resources (resources), such as processors, memory, and adapters, are constantly being used. One method that network administrators use to improve computer network efficiency is limiting the amount of resources for the applications running on the computer network. Network administrators may also limit the amount of resources in order to reduce the cost of designing, constructing, and configuring the computer network. By limiting the amount of resources, the resources present in the computer network are used more often by the applications running on the computer network.
One of the problems associated with limiting the amount of resources is a decrease in the quality of service on the computer network. The quality of service is defined as the time interval between request and delivery of a resource to an application. If an application requests a resource and the resource is readily available, then the resource may be allocated to the application quickly and the quality of service is high. However, if an application requests a resource and the resource is not available, the application has to wait for the resource to become available and the quality of service is low. Thus, an optimally configured computer network is highly efficient while maintaining a high quality of service.
One method for optimally configuring a computer network is to make the computer network application-aware. An application-aware network is one that does not arbitrarily allocate resources to requesting applications. Instead, an application-aware computer network allocates resources to requesting applications based on policies. For example, a prior art computer network may contain 100 GB of memory that the network can allocate to a plurality of applications. Two identical applications will achieve a desired result using 40 GB of memory but will achieve the desired result much faster if they are allocated a larger amount of memory. If the first application requests 75 GB of memory, then a prior art computer network would allocate 75 GB of memory to the first application. When the second application requests 75 GB of memory, the computer network only has 25 GB of memory to allocate to the second application. The second application has to wait until a minimum of 15 GB of memory becomes available before the application can begin its task. Thus, there is a large difference between the quality of service of the first application and the second application.
In an application-aware computer network, the network allocates the resources to the applications based on policies. The policies define the maximum amount of resources that can be allocated to an application. Returning to the above example, when the first application requests 75 GB of memory and the policy limits the memory allocation to 50 GB, the network only allocates 50 GB of memory to the first application. The network then has 50 GB of memory to allocate to the second application and a consistent quality of service is achieved for the two applications. A consistent quality of service is a highly desirable result in a network configuration. Therefore, a need exists for an application-aware method for allocating resources to applications running on a computer network that achieves a consistent quality of service for similar types of applications.
In complex computer networks, a plurality of customers may be running a plurality of applications on the computer network. In that case, it is important for the applications to differentiate between the more important applications and the applications of lesser importance. The more important applications should receive the majority of the resources while the remaining resources are allocated to the less important applications. The determination of relative importance should be made independent of the status of the customers associated with the applications. Therefore, a need exists for a method of allocating resources to applications in which the majority of the resources are allocated to the more important applications, regardless of the status of the customers associated with the applications.
The prior art has previously addressed the issue of improving the consistency of the quality of service of a computer network. For example, United States Patent Application Publication 2003/0187908 (the '908 application) entitled “Methods and Systems for Customer Based Resource Priority Control” discloses a customer-based system for resource management. The '908 application allows customers to purchase a certain level of service. The invention in the '908 application then allocates resources to the customer depending on the purchased level of service. However, the '908 application does not adequately meet the needs identified above. Specifically, the system of the '908 application differentiates levels of service based on the customer, not the application. The '908 application does not disclose a method for providing a consistent level of service to the same type of application when two customers, each with a different level of service, are running the same application. Therefore, a need exists for a method for providing a consistent quality of service to a plurality of applications run by a plurality of customers in a computer network.
Consequently, a need exists in the art for an application-aware method for allocating resources to applications running on a computer network that achieves a consistent quality of service for similar types of applications. The need extends to a method of allocating resources to applications in which the majority of the resources are allocated to the more important applications. Finally, a need exists for a method for providing a consistent quality of service to a plurality of applications run by a plurality of customers in a computer network, regardless of the status of the customers associated with the applications.